Login / Signup

Solid-state continuous time crystal in a polariton condensate with a built-in mechanical clock.

I Carraro-HaddadD L ChafatinosA S KuznetsovI A Papuccio-FernándezAndrés A ReynosoA BruchhausenK BiermannPaulo Ventura SantosG UsajAlejandro Fainstein
Published in: Science (New York, N.Y.) (2024)
Time crystals (TCs) are many-body systems that display spontaneous breaking of time translation symmetry. We demonstrate a TC by using driven-dissipative condensates of microcavity exciton-polaritons, spontaneously formed from an incoherent particle bath. The TC phases are controlled by the power of a continuous-wave nonresonant optical drive exciting the condensate and the interaction with cavity phonons. Those phases are, for increasing power, Larmor-like precession of the condensate pseudo-spins-a signature of continuous TC; locking of the frequency of precession to self-sustained coherent phonons-stabilized TC; and doubling of TC's period by phonons-a discrete TC with continuous excitation. These results establish microcavity polaritons as a platform for the investigation of time-broken symmetry in nonhermitian systems.
Keyphrases
  • solid state
  • magnetic resonance imaging
  • computed tomography
  • room temperature
  • diffusion weighted imaging